What to look for a in a decent light?

I have never owned a light and just briefly looked at them. Its getting soon time for daylight saving and I dont really want to stop riding after work. What are the basic's that I need? I'm sure I can put some cheap light on and work Ok for a time. I'd like a quality light, reliable, rechargable (110v and 12v maybe?) thats duable, easy to remove and stays in place when its on the bike.

I know stuff can get pricy fast. I dont need the best thing out there but some idea's on whats worth while would help me greatly. Thanks in advance

I have an Exposure Diablo on my helmet and I love it. The wireless feature seals the deal on a helmet for me.
I also have their Toro on my bars, but if I were to do it again right now, I'd do the Diablo as a helmet light and either the new Fenix on my bars or this Magicshine clone my buddy just got for like 42 dollars shipped to keep the price reasonable.

Price to performance ratio, bang for buck, Gemini lights have been about the best I have seen so far. I just picked up an Olympia and Xera about a 2 weeks ago. Liked them so much I picked up a Duo. All are excellent. Build quiality seems nice and the customize feature is great. The Olympia and Xera, both with 4 cell batteries ended costing $376 (picked up a couple Gemini chargers too). Not bad for around 2600 legit lumens of high quality light. The Duo ended up costing a couple hundred, got another 4 cell battery and the headband for trail runs. Action Led has a sale going on right now so the deals are really good.

Run-time, battery life

You can pick up pretty inexpensive / decent quality lights these days. My first generation Magicshine lasted me 3 seasons before losing half of its brightness.

You can buy a 600-700 lumen Chinese light for around $100, or you can spend about 3x more to have a middle man import it for, you, relabel it, and mark it up to have a warranty that you may never use.

Look for LED light (cree).
Has a nice runtime on the battery ... I consider 2.5 - 3 hrs good.
Has a decent battery....and take care of the battery. Do not leave uncharged in you car all week. Charge it after every use.
And, npt heavy.

Here is a site that might interest you. I have no affilation to it other than being a previous customer.Action-LED-Lights — BIKE

You cannot go against nature, because when you do, its part of nature too.

I have never owned a light and just briefly looked at them. Its getting soon time for daylight saving and I dont really want to stop riding after work. What are the basic's that I need? I'm sure I can put some cheap light on and work Ok for a time. I'd like a quality light, reliable, rechargable (110v and 12v maybe?) thats duable, easy to remove and stays in place when its on the bike.

I know stuff can get pricy fast. I dont need the best thing out there but some idea's on whats worth while would help me greatly. Thanks in advance

I'm going to tell you what someone told me once when I wanted to take up the game of golf ( many years ago )..."Don't go out right away and spend a boat-load of cash on new gear". "Find something inexpensive and see first if you like the game". I wish now that I had listened to him.

For less then $150 you should be able to purchase two ( yes, that's right I said two ) of the cheaper made Chinese light sets. Mount one on the bars and one on the helmet and you will ready to go. Never ride without two light sources. If one should fail you have the other.

Later, if you decide you really like riding at night and want more light output or a better set-up you can always upgrade. Doing it this way you will have a second light set if you want to share the night ride experience with a friend.

Now if money is no object of hindrance then for ~ $350 you can buy a really good two lamp set-up. You can always spend more for brighter/better lights but at some point it really won't make too much difference. I usually refer to this as "The point of Diminished returns".